Great platoons: 1990-2007
Our survey of elite platoonists through the decades has covered 1914-1948, 1950-1965, 1966-1978, and 1979-1989. Now we’ll make our way through the 1990s, and right up to the present day.
As a reminder, here are the criteria for inclusion:
– The platoon must have been entirely or significantly structured upon the left-right-batting basis.
– Both platoon partners must have hit well, not just one.
– We’re concerning ourselves only with offensive production, not defense or baserunning.
Something to remember as we proceed is this: Most pitchers are righthanded, usually by around two-thirds to one-third. So the signature aspect of the most strict left-right platoon partnership is that the lefthanded batter will get around twice as many plate appearances as the righthanded batter, give or take for particular circumstances.
1990 Chicago White Sox: Designated hitter
Through Jeff Torborg’s long managerial career (with, astonishingly, five different franchises), he was, shall we say, not especially noted for cleverness in lineup selection. But here he did make wise use of the journeyman Dan Pasqua and the veteran homeruncentricity hero Ron Kittle in the DH slot.
Player B G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS+ Dan Pasqua L 112 325 43 89 27 3 13 58 37 66 .274 .347 .495 136 Ron Kittle R 83 277 29 68 14 0 16 43 24 77 .245 .311 .469 118 Total 602 72 157 41 3 29 101 61 143 .261 .332 .483 128
1990 New York Mets: Center field
Darryl Boston and Mark Carreon weren’t precisely similar players; Boston was faster, and better defensively, while Carreon generally swung the better stick. But they were remarkably similar players in their overall value package: talented but flawed, quite capable of making a strong contribution within a bounded role, but not capable of handling full-time play. In other words, they were tailor-made platoon players, and each spent his career largely in that mode. Paired here, they could hardly have complemented one another more perfectly.
Player B G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS+ Darryl Boston L 115 366 65 100 21 2 12 45 28 50 .273 .328 .440 110 Mark Carreon R 82 188 30 47 12 0 10 26 15 29 .250 .312 .473 114 Total 554 95 147 33 2 22 71 43 79 .265 .323 .451 111
1990 San Francisco Giants: Catcher
Terry Kennedy and Gary Carter, on the other hand, had both been quite capable regulars in their primes (Carter, in fact, was downright great, well deserving his Cooperstown induction.) But at 34 and 36 respectively, they were wisely deployed by Giants manager Roger Craig as a platoon tandem.
Player B G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS+ Terry Kennedy L 107 303 25 84 22 0 2 26 31 38 .277 .342 .370 100 Gary Carter R 92 244 24 62 10 0 9 27 25 31 .254 .324 .406 104 Total 547 49 146 32 0 11 53 56 69 .267 .334 .386 102
1990–91–92 Pittsburgh Pirates: Catcher
Jim Leyland came up with a solid platoon partnership between singles hitters Spanky Lavalliere and Sluggo Slaught, and let it ride for several years. Lavalliere was pretty good defensively, and Slaught pretty bad, but Slaught raked lefties so well he made up for it.
1990:
Player B G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS+ Mike Lavalliere L 96 279 27 72 15 0 3 31 44 20 .258 .362 .344 100 Don Slaught R 84 230 27 69 18 3 4 29 27 27 .300 .375 .457 132 Total 509 54 141 33 3 7 60 71 47 .277 .368 .395 116
1991:
Player B G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS+ Mike Lavalliere L 108 336 25 97 11 2 3 41 33 27 .289 .351 .360 103 Don Slaught R 77 220 19 65 17 1 1 29 21 32 .295 .363 .395 116 Total 556 44 162 28 3 4 70 54 59 .291 .356 .374 109
1992:
Player B G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS+ Mike Lavalliere L 95 293 22 75 13 1 2 29 44 21 .256 .350 .328 95 Don Slaught R 87 255 26 88 17 3 4 37 17 23 .345 .384 .482 146 Total 548 48 163 30 4 6 66 61 44 .297 .366 .400 123
1991 Los Angeles Dodgers: Catcher
After San Francisco, Carter’s next stop in the closing phase of his career was Los Angeles, where he did a fine job partnering with the veteran Mike Scioscia.
Player B G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS+ Mike Scioscia L 119 345 39 91 16 2 8 40 47 32 .264 .353 .391 112 Gary Carter R 101 248 22 61 14 0 6 26 22 26 .246 .323 .375 98 Total 593 61 152 30 2 14 66 69 58 .256 .341 .384 107
1991 Los Angeles Dodgers: Third base
Over his very long tenure managing the Dodgers, Tommy Lasorda hadn’t demonstrated a particular affinity for platooning. But this year he employed it at two positions, to good effect. Neither Lenny Harris nor Mike Sharperson was anything more than utility man material, but here they combined for useful third base production.
Player B G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS+ Lenny Harris L 145 429 59 123 16 1 3 38 37 32 .287 .349 .350 100 Mike Sharperson R 105 216 24 60 11 2 2 20 25 24 .278 .355 .375 108 Total 645 83 183 27 3 5 58 62 56 .284 .351 .358 103
1992 New York Yankees: Catcher
You won’t find any Gold Gloves adorning the family room mantelpiece of either Matt Nokes or Mike Stanley, but they sure could hit.
Player B G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS+ Matt Nokes L 121 384 42 86 9 1 22 59 37 62 .224 .293 .424 100 Mike Stanley R 68 173 24 43 7 0 8 27 33 45 .249 .372 .428 125 Total 557 66 129 16 1 30 86 70 107 .232 .323 .425 109
1993 Philadelphia Phillies: Right field
Jim Eisenreich was one of the best stories of his era, battling through the agonies of Tourette syndrome to forge a long career as an outstanding platoon hitter. His approach at the plate made for a distinct contrast with that of this platoon partner: Eisenreich with the short, quick, fundamentally sound line-drive stroke, and the toolsy Wes Chamberlain with the big, loopy, undisciplined hack.
Player B G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS+ Jim Eisenreich L 153 362 51 115 17 4 7 54 26 36 .318 .363 .445 117 Wes Chamberlain R 96 284 34 80 20 2 12 45 17 51 .282 .320 .493 116 Total 646 85 195 37 6 19 99 43 87 .302 .346 .466 117
1994 Texas Rangers: Right field
Rusty Greer was a rookie in this strike-abbreviated season, being eased into the regular status he would hold for the next several years. For his part, the journeyman Chris James was delivering one of the all-time great platoon splits: in his 83 plate appearances against right-handed pitching, a line of .171/.293/.329, while in his 76 chances against lefties, a blistering .349/.434/.762.
Player B G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS+ Rusty Greer L 80 277 36 87 16 1 10 46 46 46 .314 .410 .487 131 Chris James R 52 133 28 34 8 4 7 19 20 38 .256 .361 .534 128 Total 410 64 121 24 5 17 65 66 84 .295 .396 .502 130
1995 Toronto Blue Jays: Right field
This was a very similar situation, as the rookie Shawn Green was generally allowed to sit down against southpaws and let the veteran Candy Maldonado, in his final season, handle that chore.
Player B G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS+ Shawn Green L 121 379 52 109 31 4 15 54 20 68 .288 .326 .509 114 Candy Maldonado R 61 160 22 43 13 0 7 25 25 45 .269 .368 .481 120 Total 539 74 152 44 4 22 79 45 113 .282 .340 .501 116
1995 Cleveland Indians: First base
This was the strike-shortened year in which the Indians went a torrid 100-44, as pretty much everything went right for them (at least until the World Series). Among the pieces that fell nicely into place was the manner in which all-or-nothing slugger Paul Sorrento and line-drive-hitting rookie Herb Perry niftily complemented one another at first base.
Player B G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS+ Paul Sorrento L 104 323 50 76 14 0 25 79 51 71 .235 .336 .511 117 Herb Perry R 52 162 23 51 13 1 3 23 13 28 .315 .376 .463 118 Total 485 73 127 27 1 28 102 64 99 .262 .350 .495 117
1995 Cincinnati Reds: Third base
Neither Jeff Branson nor Mark Lewis was a serious third baseman; both were decent utility-infielder types who could swing the bat a little. But paired here by manager Davey Johnson—who had an eye for offense as sharp as any manager in history—they were leveraged into a potent package, more than filling a third base hole for the Reds.
Player B G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS+ Jeff Branson L 122 331 43 86 18 2 12 45 44 69 .260 .345 .435 106 Mark Lewis R 81 171 25 58 13 1 3 30 21 33 .339 .407 .480 135 Total 502 68 144 31 3 15 75 65 102 .287 .368 .450 117
1998 Houston Astros: Third base
Bill Spiers and Sean Berry matched up well: The lefty-hitting Spiers was solid defensively and a very good on-base guy but with limited power, while the right-handed Berry was defensively challenged and rarely drew many walks, but reliably delivered the extra-base hits. They made a first-rate platoon for manager Larry Dierker, especially since Berry punished southpaws this year at a .383/.429/.598 rate.
Player B G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS+ Bill Spiers L 89 328 60 95 25 3 4 38 40 47 .290 .373 .421 111 Sean Berry R 84 279 46 90 17 1 12 49 28 44 .323 .393 .520 140 Total 607 106 185 42 4 16 87 68 91 .305 .382 .466 126
1999 Chicago Cubs: Left field
There wasn’t anything the least bit subtle about this combination: Henry Rodriguez and Glenallen Hill each delivered lousy defense and ferocious power, in heaping quantities.
Player B G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS+ Henry Rodriguez L 130 447 72 136 29 0 26 87 56 113 .304 .381 .544 125 Glenallen Hill R 33 111 25 42 3 1 10 33 11 26 .378 .427 .694 170 Total 558 97 178 32 1 36 120 67 139 .319 .391 .573 136
1999 San Francisco Giants: Catcher
Here Giants’ GM Brian Sabean was exhibiting a clever resourcefulness he often displayed in that period, a knack he seems to have utterly lost in recent years. Brent Mayne and Scott Servais were low-profile journeymen signed as bargain-basement free agents who were fit together just right by manager Dusty Baker.
Player B G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS+ Brent Mayne L 117 322 39 97 32 0 2 39 43 65 .301 .389 .419 115 Scott Servais R 69 198 21 54 10 0 5 21 13 31 .273 .327 .399 92 Total 520 60 151 42 0 7 60 56 96 .290 .369 .412 108
2000 St. Louis Cardinals: Right field
It certainly can be argued that the abundantly-talented J.D. Drew was just way too good a player to be deployed in a platoon role at such a young age (he was 24 here, in his second full big league season). On the other hand, it is the case that Drew was highly injury-prone from the get-go, and so it also could be plausibly argued that the periodic rest a left-handed-hitting platoon player is bound to receive—sitting down once or twice a week—was a good program for him, preventing a serious breakdown.
The latter logic is apparently what drove Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa to deploy Drew as he did, and GM Walt Jocketty to support the strategy by providing LaRussa with a good veteran role player such as Eric Davis to serve as Drew’s partner. There’s no disputing the quality of the results.
Player B G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS+ J.D. Drew L 135 407 73 120 17 2 18 57 67 99 .295 .401 .479 122 Eric Davis R 92 254 38 77 14 0 6 40 36 60 .303 .389 .429 107 Total 661 111 197 31 2 24 97 103 159 .298 .397 .460 117
2001 Chicago White Sox: Center field
This was nice work by manager Jerry Manuel to get the best out of his center field situation, breaking in the rookie Aaron Rowand as the platoon partner with Chris Singleton, who was a useful player but not really suitable as a full-timer.
Player B G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS+ Chris Singleton L 140 392 57 117 21 5 7 45 20 61 .298 .331 .431 97 Aaron Rowand R 63 123 21 36 5 0 4 20 15 28 .293 .385 .431 113 Total 515 78 153 26 5 11 65 35 89 .297 .346 .431 101
2002 Los Angeles Dodgers: Center field
Marquis Grissom had sort of an odd career. As a young player with the Expos, he was quite a talent: blazing speed, tremendous center field defense, and a decent line-drive hitter with moderate power. His only weakness was not-so-great plate discipline, and even that wasn’t too bad.
As he aged, Grissom gradually (and unsurprisingly) lost the great speed. But his power didn’t really develop much to compensate for it, and so in his age 31-to-33 seasons with the Brewers, even though he could still play defense pretty well, Grissom had become an overall below-average center fielder. He certainly didn’t seem to be the type of player a team would trade for, especially since he was carrying a $5 million-a-year contract, but Dodgers GM Kevin Malone nonetheless surrendered Devon White to get Grissom for the 2001 season. To be fair, White was also an over-the-hill center fielder dragging a $5 million contract, but White’s deal had only one more year remaining, and Grissom’s two.
He wouldn’t prove to be a disaster for the Dodgers, exactly; Grissom was more like comedy gold. At the age of 34, he suddenly abandoned even the modest strike zone judgment he’d demonstrated for years, and altogether seemed to be attempting to transform himself into Dave Kingman. As Grissom in 2001 achieved a career-best home run rate of 21 in 448 at-bats, his strikeout rate soared, his batting average sank, and his on-base percentage plunged to a comical .250. All this for five million dollars.
It wasn’t just for this fiasco that Malone soon found himself fired—that’s a long and colorful story in itself—but at any rate Malone was dismissed, and Dan Evans took over as Dodgers GM. Evans showed remarkable wisdom in dealing with the center field mess: He looked beyond what Grissom had done so badly in 2001, and identified what he’d done well, namely, hitting left-handers all right, slugging .500 against them.
So Evans sought a platoon partner for Grissom, and found an interesting candidate at essentially no cost: Dave Roberts, soon to be 30 years old, a career minor leaguer with no power but with exceptional speed, and a left-handed batter who looked like he might be able to get on base against right-handers. Evans acquired Roberts in exchange for a bag of grass-stained balls, and voila! Adroitly deployed by manager Jim Tracy, the unlikely pair of Roberts and Grissom provided splendid center field production for the Dodgers in 2002.
For his part, Grissom seemed especially rejuvenated. His $5 million-per-season contract would expire at the end of 2002, and he would be signed by the Giants at a fraction of that cost. Proving a legion of naysayers wrong, at ages 36 and 37 Grissom would deliver two solid years as a regular center fielder in San Francisco. In this late-career phase, Grissom regained the capacity to hold his own against righthanded pitching, while he just demolished lefties: his combined total against southpaws in 2002-03-04 was 422 at-bats, 24 doubles, 31 home runs, a .325 batting average, and a .623 slugging average.
Player B G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS+ Dave Roberts L 127 422 63 117 14 7 3 34 48 51 .277 .353 .365 98 Marquis Grissom R 58 212 40 60 14 3 13 45 15 38 .283 .326 .561 138 Total 634 103 177 28 10 16 79 63 89 .279 .345 .431 114
2003 St. Louis Cardinals: Right field
Here we see our fragile friend Mr. Drew again, this time paired with the journeyman Eduardo Perez, whose handsome contribution was a .353/.459/.667 line versus lefthanded pitching.
Player B G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS+ J.D. Drew L 100 287 60 83 13 3 15 42 36 48 .289 .374 .512 133 Eduardo Perez R 105 253 47 72 16 0 11 41 29 53 .285 .365 .478 122 Total 540 107 155 29 3 26 83 65 101 .287 .370 .496 128
2003 San Francisco Giants: First base
Their days as full-time players were behind them, but 35-year-old J.T. Snow and 42-year-old Andres Galarraga could still be highly productive in a job-sharing arrangement. These two had accumulated eight Gold Glove awards between them, by the way; I don’t know, but that might well be the record for platoon partners.
Player B G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS+ J.T. Snow L 103 330 48 90 18 3 8 51 55 55 .273 .387 .418 112 Andres Galarraga R 110 272 36 82 15 0 12 42 19 61 .301 .352 .489 118 Total 602 84 172 33 3 20 93 74 116 .286 .373 .450 115
2004 Los Angeles Dodgers: Second base
I always viewed Jose Hernandez as the Woodie Held of the 1990s/2000s. Both were middle infielders who hit in a decidely non-typical-middle-infielder low-average, good-power, high-strikeout mode, neither was great defensively but both could get the job done, and both were commonly dismissed as mediocrities by writers and broadcasters who refused to look beyond the strikeouts, when in fact both were pretty good ballplayers.
Picking up Hernandez as a low-cost free agent was one of the several smart moves Paul DePodesta made in his brief and ill-fated tenure as Dodgers GM. Hernandez and the good-field, not-much-hit Alex Cora fit together splendidly at second base.
Player B G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS+ Alex Cora L 138 405 47 107 9 4 10 47 47 41 .264 .364 .380 98 Jose Hernandez R 95 211 32 61 12 1 13 29 26 61 .289 .370 .540 137 Total 616 79 168 21 5 23 76 73 102 .273 .366 .435 114
2005 Philadelphia Phillies: Center field
The nomad Kenny Lofton, with the sixth among the nine teams for which he’s played since becoming a free agent in November of 2001, combined very nicely in Philadelphia with journeyman Jason Michaels.
Player B G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS+ Kenny Lofton L 110 367 67 123 15 5 2 36 32 41 .335 .392 .420 107 Jason Michaels R 105 289 54 88 16 2 4 31 44 45 .304 .399 .415 108 Total 656 121 211 31 7 6 67 76 86 .322 .395 .418 107
2005 San Diego Padres: Center field
Making the most of his rescue from minor league oblivion, Roberts has put together a solid career as a platoon outfielder. Xavier Nady hasn’t been platooned much, but he probably should be: Over his career, he’s hit .252/.302/.427 against righthanders, and .320/.390/.477 against lefties.
Player B G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS+ Dave Roberts L 115 411 65 113 19 10 8 38 53 59 .275 .356 .428 114 Xavier Nady R 30 106 20 31 4 1 7 25 7 20 .292 .342 .547 139 Total 517 85 144 23 11 15 63 60 79 .279 .353 .453 120
2005–06 Minnesota Twins: Catcher
This has been a good platoon situation for the Twins, but it hasn’t been leveraged as well as it might. Manager Ron Gardenhire hasn’t alternated the lefty-hitting Joe Mauer and his righty-hitting backup Mike Redmond on a very strict left-right basis; in these two seasons Mauer got quite a few starts against southpaws and Redmond took more than a few of his starts against righthanders. This has been the case despite the fact that Mauer obviously hits righties far better than Redmond, and while Mauer hasn’t been terrible against lefties—his career line is .273/.339/.326—the veteran Redmond is licensed to kill: Over his career he’s hit .332 against lefthanders, and in 2005-06 combined Redmond exterminated southpaws at a .398/.423/.484 clip, with, get this, only three strikeouts in 128 at-bats.
In 2007, these two really weren’t in a platoon arrangement, as Mauer missed significant time with injuries, and Redmond thus caught a lot of the games against righthanders. But never fear: in his 88 at-bats against lefties in ’07, Redmond delivered a .330/.410/.443 line, fanning just three times.
2005:
Player B G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS+ Joe Mauer L 110 434 56 129 25 1 9 52 50 57 .297 .369 .422 110 Mike Redmond R 45 148 17 46 9 0 1 26 6 14 .311 .350 .392 97 Total 582 73 175 34 1 10 78 56 71 .301 .365 .414 107
2006:
Player B G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS+ Joe Mauer L 120 457 73 152 26 4 12 77 68 51 .333 .415 .486 135 Mike Redmond R 47 179 20 61 13 0 0 23 4 18 .341 .365 .413 103 Total 636 93 213 39 4 12 100 72 69 .335 .403 .465 128
Whither platooning?
If you’ve been paying impeccably close attention throughout this five-installment series (and I know you have, of course), perhaps it’s seemed to you as though the occurrence of great platoons has slacked off a bit since the early 1990s. If that’s been your sense, guess what: You’re right.
Here’s the frequency of all of the great platoon situations we’ve presented since the first in 1914, expressed as the percentage of occurrence per major league team:
The regularity of these outcomes has indeed dramatically declined over the past 15-20 years. The rate has leveled off since the late 1990s, but the level it’s found—a great platoon on about 4% of teams per season—is the lowest seen in the major leagues since the 1940s, and distinctly below the rate displayed in platooning’s first great flowering of the early 1920s. In the current era, great platoons are being exhibited at around one-quarter of the rate seen in 1950-1974, and approached again in the early 1980s.
By all means, it’s important to remember that the definition of “great platoon” we’ve been employing here is hardly precise. Certainly, one could reasonably take issue with some of the instances I’ve included, and make a case for some I’ve left out. I suspect if I went back and undertook the exercise again I might come up with a slightly different list.
But with that acknowledged, it’s clear that something significant has changed over the past decade or two. However we choose to define them, we’re seeing far fewer “great” platoons in the current era. And the reason for the reduction is also clear: We’re seeing far fewer platoons, period. It’s abundantly apparent that the practice of regular platooning has been distinctly curtailed since the mid-to-late 1980s.
Why has this happened? That answer, too, seems fairly obvious: Platooning has largely become a casualty of the expanded bullpen that came into vogue in the 1990s. With teams nowdays normally carrying at least 11, generally 12, and sometimes 13 pitchers (as opposed to the previous standard of 10, and not-too-rarely nine), the reduced proportion of position players on the roster renders it practically impossible for managers to engage in the degree of platooning that they once did. There simply aren’t enough bats on hand to support the in-game substitutions platooning demands—those substitutions are now being made on the pitchers’ mound.
Thus, teams have traded off the ability to gain and hold the platoon advantage on offense for the improved capacity to thwart it on defense. Whether this represents a step forward, a step back, or a wash in terms of competitive efficacy is an open question. My own judgment, as presented here in detail, is that taking all the factors into consideration, it’s generally been a poor choice.
Regardless, it’s what the new norm clearly has become. The great platoon isn’t extinct, but it’s a far more rare specimen than was observed in the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s. May we not take it for granted, and endeavor to appropriately appreciate this exquisite maneuver when we’re given a modern glimpse.